I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless telecommunications, and specifically to advanced cellular telephone networks.
II. Background of the Invention
The Global System for Mobile (GSM) telecommunications is used in cellular telephone networks in many countries around the world. GSM offers a useful range of network services and standards. Existing GSM networks are based on time-division multiple access (TDMA) digital communications technology. In a TDMA-based cellular network, each mobile subscriber unit communicates with only a single base station at any given time. When a subscriber moves from one cell to another, a “hard handover” takes place, in which the base station with which the subscriber has been communicating breaks off its link with the subscriber, and a new base station takes over.
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is an improved digital communications technology, which affords more efficient use of radio bandwidth than TDMA, as well as a more reliable, fade-free link between cellular telephone subscribers and base stations. The leading CDMA standard is IS-95, promulgated by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). This standard provides “soft handover” (or “handoff”) capability, wherein in moving from one cell to another, the subscriber unit is temporarily in contact with two or more base stations at the same time. This soft handover, which is made possible by the code-division approach, decreases the likelihood of a loss of connection, which can happen frequently in hard handovers.
PCT patent application PCT/US96/20764, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a wireless telecommunications system that uses a CDMA air interface (i.e., basic RF communications protocols) to implement GSM network services and protocols. Using this system, at least some of the TDMA base stations (BSSs) and subscriber units of an existing GSM network would be replaced or supplemented by corresponding CDMA equipment. CDMA BSSs in this system are adapted to communicate with GSM mobile switching centers (MSCs) via a standard GSM A-interface. The core of GSM network services is thus maintained, and the changeover from TDMA to CDMA is transparent to users.
Hybrid cellular communications networks, incorporating both GSM and CDMA elements, are also described in PCT patent publications WO 95/24771 and WO 96/21999, and in an article by Tscha, et al., entitled “A Subscriber Signaling Gateway between CDMA Mobile Station and GSM Mobile Switching Center,” in Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Universal Personal Communications, Ottawa (1993), pp. 181-185, which are incorporated herein by reference. None of these publications deals with specific issues of how to perform efficient handovers of subscriber units between different base stations in such hybrid networks.
PCT patent application PCT/US97/00926, which is also incorporated herein by reference, describes methods of intersystem handover between CDMA and TDMA BSSs in a hybrid GSM/CDMA telecommunications system. A GSM/TDMA BSS generates pilot beacon signals in accordance with CDMA technology. During a telephone call, a subscriber unit detects the pilot signals and notifies a base station controller that the signals have been detected. The subscriber unit is then handed over from the CDMA to the TDMA BSS without interrupting the call.